Overwatch 2’s first new hero of 2025 will be Freya, an explosive crossbow-wielding bounty hunter who can dash and fly around the battlefield.
Blizzard revealed Freya as part of its Overwatch 2 Spotlight livestream, diving into more details about the damage-role hero. Freya is a former search-and-rescue operative but now works as a bounty hunter. Her basic crossbow attack will rapidly shoot bolts at enemies. However, her alternate fire sees her taking aim to deliver a high-speed explosive bolt for big damage.
Movement and positioning seems to be a big part of Freya’s toolkit, with Blizzard stating she is a “challenging and rewarding” character that will take “precision and a steady aim to master.” She has both a quick dash ability (that reloads her crossbow in the process) and a move called Updraft that will launch her into the sky. Her Bola Shot ability pulls enemies together, setting them up for a damaging combo from teammates or a well-placed explosive crossbow shot.
Freya will join Overwatch 2’s roster as part of Season 16 later this year, but players will get the chance to try her out during Season 15 as part of a trial weekend.
While Blizzard shared plenty of details about Freya, she wasn’t the only new hero the developer revealed. Aqua, a staff-wielding, water-bending Chinese hero, will join Overwatch 2 as part of Season 18, Blizzard announced, bringing with him an “innovative playstyle.” Blizzard at this stage has only shared concept art for Aqua, but said more details about his abilities would come closer to his release.
New heroes were just a part of all the announcements to come out of Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 Spotlight stream. For starters, loot boxes are returning to Overwatch 2 with Season 15. Blizzard additionally revealed the addition of Perks as a new core gameplay system in Overwatch 2, as well as a new round-based, third-person mode called Stadium that sees players buying items and upgrading their heroes over the course of a match.